Spain won two of their group rounds with a pretty impressive number of goals. All predictions have them facing Germany in the final. First, though, they face France. A couple of the French squad opted to miss training to look after small injuries, like a blister, but are expected to be fully fit for the match this evening. The team won a group match, lost a group match, and drew a group match, so your money would have to be on Spain to go through. The winner will face Portugal in the next round.
Spain vs France (Quarter-final)
Published by Christine Blachford on
Well, I like the way France play, and I like the Spain play. But which one is better?
THERE'S ONLY ONE WAY TO FIND OUT!!
90 minutes of football.
... or maybe 120 and pens!
I don't think France will last all 120 minutes to get to pelanties.
Probably not, but then again, Spain have never won a competetive match against France (5L, 1D).
I think this stat may change.
Currently SPA 44%, FRA 32%, D 26%: http://t.co/I9KAFDJv (Some more of those live stats for us)
This is likely to be a better match that if we get SPA v GER.
SPA 4-3-3: Casillas / Arbeloa, Pique, Sergio Ramos, Jordi Alba / Xavi, Busquets, Alonso / Silva, Fabregas, Iniesta.
FRA 4-5-1: Lloris / Reveillere, Rami, Koscielny, Clichy / M'Vila, Debuchy, Cabaye, Malouda, Ribery / Benzema.
I thought that when Jamie Carragher was asking Roy Keane about Balotelli being unhandlable, "You've been a manager ...", that he was instead going to ask him about being the crazy player himself, "you've been the player in the squad ...".
Evening all
Hi there.
Can't see France beating Spain
If the Spanish and Italians both win, then we'll end up with that most famous combo of anthems in the semis.
Roy Keane being asked to comment on Balotelli being rude and arrogant was rather amusing.
C'mon Spain!
Hello
The French have left Nasri out partly because he plays too much for himself and isn't good enough to do so, and also partly because the rest of the squad hate him.
Hi Pat and Gavin
Evening guys
Hi Steven, everyone.
Ok - so I meant final - long-shot now then.
But it is Germany vs Spain in the final
Interesting shot
Hello peeps.
Hey Christine. Are you still in the Apple shop or did you manage to drag him out?
Hello
That is a ridiculous amount of space to give anyone at any level
Almost like they don't want to get the ball back.
No, we have escaped.
Do you now own a retina device or two?
Most people generally own two retina devices ;)
:)
GOAL!!
Fantastic
Yeeeeeeees!
Loving the movement
Nicely done
Defending? What defending?
Spain were outnumbered everywhere in that whole move and France never looked like stopping them
Perfect header
Nobody marked xavi there!
Spain are playing at a different level to any other country in the world right now
Including Germany?
I think that Germany are still the favourites after what I saw last night.
France have two right backs playing to stop that. The first one blew the coverage and the second one stood yards off and waved his leg in the air. He should have been 2 yards inside the first one and the cross would never have been attempted
Yes
That was only against Greece.
I can see Spain beating Germany by 3 goals
Greece gave them a tough game. They were frustrated until Germany blew them away. It's momentum like that which can make a team start an unstoppable roll.
I think Germany is on a roll and I don't see anyone stopping them getting to the final but once they get there I can't see them doing anything but losing
Love this tweet
FourFourTom @FourFourTom
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Interesting fact: Xavi wears 8 for Spain & 6 for Barcelona. Iniesta wears 6 for Spain & 8 for Barcelona. They both wanted 8 so took one each
It took me a while to appreciate it but now I could watch Spain passing the ball around probing for an opening for hours
Ooo nice interplay - nice run
This is the kind of thing Germany didn't do last night. They made three or four passes then even if there was no obvious opening they made a desperate lunge forward and on almost every case lost possession
I love that they would even try a pass to someone who has two markers within touching distance
You can do that if you're not playing strikers of the calibre of Heskey.
That move was handy - Ribery will prove key for the French
France are a bit more in it now.
Ribery's new shirt-fashion
I will be keeping one retina device on the NASCAR Nationwide race starting shortly, it's at Road America and they say rain is coming.
Will they race in the rain because it is not an oval. I thought they still didn't
hey all. i went outside and i didn't expire. what have i missed so far?
Last time they tried that the rain tyres were 10years old and one of the drivers used a squeegee because he had no wipers...
Some fantastic play and a great goal by Spain
Yes, they did it at Montreal before. Nationwide do but Cup don't.
I hope this Road America is paved with gold and French fries.
Spain playing some very nice football
I am sure when Lewis Hamilton and Tony Stewart did the swap at The Glen there was a wiper on the car and Stewart said he had never seen a Cup car with a wiper before
The burning of witches tonight in Denmark ;)
umm...?
ace
Love today's Alan Turing google doodle. Haven't worked out how to solve it but I have the video just in case it proves beyond me. Which it almost certainly will
Best. Doodle. Ever.
The goal was good but I was a bit bored. Maybe that's because I was doing the washing up halfway through.
I only just found it when someone tweeted a link to the answer
I studied Turing machines and they are quite simply genius!
If you understand how to write any kind of IF, then solving it is intuitive :)
Any hint on whether it'll be archived for geeks?
It's the feast of sankt hans (st John). It's sort of done as a midsummer event. Basically everyone goes to the park or the beach, has a picnic and burns a witch on a bonfire. The witch is like the guy on guy Fawkes night.
Thing is, it rained cats and dogs earlier so I wasnt keen on going out!
You will be needing this then which I also haven't looked AT SINCE i PARKED IT ON A TAB THIS MORNING
http://www.lysator.liu.se/~koma/turingbombe/
Wonder if Turing had a solution to accident caps lock
Gates has a solution for that can be solved in Office.
that was a great goal!
:)
Wow. The French defender was ridiculously lazy in that goal!
Man juggling knives on a massive unicycle. Like to see Iniesta do that.
The whole French team was. Spain were outnumbered everywhere. France picked two right backs to stop that happening and the second one who should have been covering the one who went to the ball just stood off.
I hate Yoda for selling out and doing Vodafone adverts.
Do you think he tastes of wasabi ?
I have to deal with a supplier in Pakistan at work. He writes e-mails that make no sense to anyone. Last week I read one like Yoda and perfect sense it made. I think from Star Wars English he learned
note to self. they've swapped ends.
Well done. I knew you could do it.
Half way through F1 races they should all be forced to swap directions.
heheheh
Safety car them together, send them all down the pits, and hairpin at the end?
Reversing would properly screw up the aerodynamics. I approve
Means you would get equal wear on a set of tyres - no bias to one side.
Trouble is cars are very unstable under braking in reverse.
I think you're taking this a little too seriously Steven.
Ohh you mean literally swap directions!? Better improve those mirrors then!
I still think it could work. Although there is a rule that says the driver must face forward. Wonder which way is forward in reverse
France look up this much more. Perhaps everyone should start 1-0 down against Spain.
Spain doing a far better job of defending than France did under pressure
Direction of the car going round the track ??
I have a friend in NZ who can do that.
Malouda is still an almost offensively bad player though.
Star Warsaw become such a sellout.
I think a lot of foreigners who don't learn English properly talk like that. I see that here in Denmark.
Is that the Polish version? :)
In fairness, all English-speaking people learn to speak Swedish from the Swedish Chef, so we can't find it that offensive.
Spain play like old fashioned rugby union at times. Go straight at the defender and pass as soon as he commits
I know various other languages have Yoda-like sentence structure - leaving the verb till then end in some cases.
All other teams play modern rugby union- KICK IT. KICK IT LONG.
Bloody autocorrect again! I think it's become self-aware!
Star Walsall - the West Midlands version.
Very true
I like France's plan B but you have to wonder why it wasn't plan A. Why wait till you are a goal down then attack?
Star City Wars for Russia
I think we have a new sidepodgame
More suggestions please
Surely the Russian version would be Tsar Wars.
Haha bingo :)
Oh what have I done? :)
Gen.i.us
:) I had thought of Starlingrad Wars - but that just seems wrong.
:)
Dad just called. "don't tell me the score!"
Well I told him to call back later because I'm bloody watching it!
In a tower lock you have
Stair Wars
Anthony Hamilton has
Stare Wars
Good evening from France to all of you
Hello Jacques
Enjoying the game?
Hi Jacques. Your thoughts so far?
Difficult to answer, France may equalise but they lack of passes precision. Will see
They are playing much better since Spain scored
What this game needs is a goal. I know it's a cliche but if the French equalise it will be mega.
Agree, the new comer Jeremy Menes may help them to push forward, he's damn fast on the side
He waited too long to cross that
As to ManCity Nasri, he should have benn sent home already, he's not a tam player with the national squad at least
Great break again by France
Speaking of Star Wars... http://www.google.co.uk/url?sa=t&rct=j&q=&esrc=s&source=web&cd=1&ved=0CGMQtwIwAA&url=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.youtube.com%2Fwatch%3Fv%3D84WpcmJ28Yg&ei=JSPmT46YOsql8QOP4ZzDCg&usg=AFQjCNG29f9jJWVb8bBAd-rPTDxHg41ovw&sig2=8JhYFwoMxm6N7ZPO97SxIg
The game is much more spread out than in the first half. Then you could see both formations in one shot. Now it is a lot less precise and strung out
It's amazing to think that city won the premier league with all those egos in there - Nasri, Balotelli, Tevez...
leg. End.
Right, but the manager succeeded of making all these egos one team. The French manager miserably failed
Best Star Wars on youtube
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Sv5iEK-IEzw
:D
My colleague knows all the eddie Izzard sketches off by heart!
Sorry forgot about the language on that one
It feels like Spain are killing France with a thousand cuts.
One more forward coming on the pitch. Oliver Giroud watch for this guy
I hear he's off to arsenal?
It's amazing to think how many good player Liverpool had, only to sell them for a pittance.
hey jacques
The way Spain play is amazing. It's like they have torn up the accepted wisdom of the game. They choose to attack areas where they are outnumbered and pass to players who are closely marked.
If they were not so good and successful I would think they were clueless
4 French forwards now, France is now playong 4-2-4 at last!
Good evening Mr C
It's amazing to think that Liverpool bought so many players who didn't work out at Liverpool (some of whom still haven't recovered their previous form).
Curse of the Kop.
Judging by France's quality here, England will be lucky to get past Italy, assuming Eng and Fra are similar quality.
1-1 said maybe.
Worst game of the tournament so far? I thought last nights was good, but I only saw highlights...
England haven't got a chance!
This was supposed to be the best, what's happened?
It's always the way!
None of them wants to loose!
This one?
I have loved it. Spain are amazing to watch. France sat deep in the first half but that just let Spain demonstrate their quality. Second half has been a bit more bitty but still has some good stuff in it
not by a long shot. i'm quite enjoying it. wouldn't mind seeing it go to extra time though.
Spain are amazing to watch but France have disappointed :(
I have only seen half a dozen full games and this is far from being the worst of those
Game over!
Definite penalty
oh bugggger
Ooh, penalty.
I was expecting more from the French, and so Spain have only needed to be half-paced, despite their great work.
I'm bored. They're just kicking it around the middle.
The French should stop this penalty being taken by all getting in a massive fight. For old time's sake.
I suppose I am disappointed because I had hoped France would have made more of a game of it.
job done.
Poor keeperman.
Shame - I was wanting a last min French sneaky equaliser.
I was convinced that was going to the keeper's top left. So was the keeper
Congrats to the Spanish squad, they controlled the game all along
Score Wars?
:)
I wish France had not sat back defending so much in the first half.
Spain Portugal. That's a battle!
That could be the Star Wars musical
What about a music competition between guitar-brass hybrid bands? Ska Wars
:)
That leads to the attle of the plastic surgeons
Scar Wars
A battle between fungi: Spore Wars...
Like it
Spain did what they needed to do tonight. Shame France didn't challenge them. Portugal will be much more formidable opposition..
A battle of hospital surgery recovery suites: Scar Wards
Does that mean Laurent blank is off to spurs then?
Spain against Portugal will be interesting. The team against the individual
Very poor French squad!
FYI, the French forward Olivier Giroud has signed with Arsenal for 4 seasons!
A. Wenger is speaking highly of him.
Then there is the Jamaican Bobsleigh version of Star Wars
Cool Runnings :)
Spain will win.
Most probably
I don't think they are very poor. They are not what they were but they don't need a huge change to be successful
The only thing they need is TEAM SPIRIT
Pernod?
LOL
In a lot of cases that seems to be the hardest thing to achieve.
cheers for the comments everyone.
OK gals & guys, I'm off for another glass of wine.
Maybe see you tomorrow afternoon aroung 14.00 European time, of course.
Enjoy
See you Jacques
See you then
cheers!
BTW, get ready for another French victory tomorrow.
The Renault one ;-))
Not a German one: Vettel or Merc engine?
you mean... the grosjean one ;)
Vettel is on Renault
I predict a crash at turn 1 bteween VET & HAM.
I did put my euros on MAL.
Is that on the basis your Euros won't be worth much?
That is brave. You never know which Pastor will turn up. May be the racer or it may be the crazy person who crashes a lot
As interesting as a 1st corner shunt involving Vettel would make the rest of the race, I'm
not going to let HAM be involved - Lewis ftw.
well well... Don't know what to say
John Fashanu. John Fashanu. JOHN FASHANU. That's John Fasharnu...
Never seen anyone get excited about John Fashanu since Gladiators went off the air
:)
OK enough for tonight.
Sweet dreams everyone.
It's a The Day Today reference- http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xLuaqNoxjro